A group of hardliner Saudi clerics have called on the Islamic state’s new minister of information to halt efforts to liberalize the media by taking Saudi women off state television.

In a statement posted on Saudi websites, the 35 clerics, including leading independent Abdul Rahman Al Barrak, argued that the Saudi government was violating its own rules on religion and morals.

Saudi Arabia applies a strict version of Islamic Sharia law, says the Quran is its constitution and gives clerics wide powers to monitor public behavior.

“[Saudi laws] prohibit showing women dancing, singing, or making news broadcasts weather in Arabic or in a foreign language and ban any Saudi woman form appearing on television under all circumstances,” said the statement posted on Islamist websites, citing previous cabinet decrees.

Abdul Aziz Khoja was appointed Minister of Culture and Information last month, replacing Iyad Madani, who conservatives despaired for loosening the controls by putting women on Saudi television and showing Western films.